


Stories of the Second Self: The Guardsmen, Grimm

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [58]
Category: National Guard - Fandom, Urban Fantasy - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:21:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22536958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Jerrod Connor and the other werewolves of his fire team smell traces of putrescine and cadaverine, two compounds the human body gives off after death. Following the olfactory trail, Jerrod comes across giants that he suspects are killing people. Scouting out their camp in the woods, Jerrod realizes it's much worse. He organizes his team to fight the giants to stop further loss of life.
Series: Alter Idem [58]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: The Guardsmen, Grimm

"Jerrod, what are you doing?" Leonard hissed, "Captain Gonzales said we're just supposed to hold position until support comes."

Jerrod stood by the stream when a scent drifted down the tree-lined brook. It reminded him of gorillas in the zoo, but he had come to associate that scene with people also. It was part of Captain Gonzales' training regimen after forming and taking command of the 37th Wild Strikers.

And sure as if Gonzales were telling in his ear, Jerrod was certain he smelled putrescine and cadaverine, the two most common substances a decay human corpse gave off, most of the time.

"It'll just be a minute," Jerrod said back to Leonard.

"You know what can happen in a minute?" Leonard said back in hushed tones, before looking to Tanner and David.

He didn't need reminding, what with their first run-in against vampires a month after civil order collapsed throughout Ohio, and indeed the country. However, it was daylight, and foliage didn't offer appreciable protection for nightcrawlers.

"Keep watch down the stream, then," Jerrod whispered back, before heading off by himself. "I'll stay in view."

His fire team had been at this site for a couple hours when the scent hit Jerrod's nose. He assumed the others smelled it too, because that's why they all ended up in Wild Strike. He couldn't know how far up the smell originated from, but Jerrod didn't hear anything, so he felt it reasonably safe to recon.

Though, to stay safe, Jerrrod kept out of the brook and actively ensured his footfalls landed on soil and not water or twigs. Venturing out to fifty meters, then Jerrod heard something.

Suddenly, it occurred to Jerrod that having someone's voice come across comms now would be bad, and so turned off his radio. The headset was strapped on under his helmet with a single ear cup positioned over his left ear and wouldn't have been too loud. However, Jerrod figured he didn't know who or what was up here, and didn't want to risk finding out their hearing was as good as his.

Double checking the rest of his issue, Jerrod made sure nothing was loose before continuing on with his rifle slung in front of him and his hands positioned to raise it if he needed to quick. With each step, Jerrod's eyes flitted left, right, up, and down for anything moving and whatever was laying still but otherwise unusual.

The sounds he heard were low-pitched, making him think of wildlife documentary he'd seen about African water buffalo. Yet, the rotting human smell grew a bit stronger, casting doubt on innocuous herd animals. Then came a thump in the distance. It reminded Jerrod of someone stepping backwards, except this was heavier, much heavier.

More thumps sounded, and Jerrod ducked down and reached out to a nearby tree trunk to brace himself and take comfort for the readily available cover. He didn't position him behind it yet, because he wanted to be absolutely sure he wasn't spotted while holding still. Gonzales didn't need to tell Guardsmen like Jerrod that sudden movement drew the animal eye, be it predator or prey.

The heavy pounding proceeded from Jerrod's right to left. Amid the soft but distinct thuds, Jerrod picked out the pattern virtually unique to bipeds, and realized these weren't simply deer, moose, horse, or bison. Not yet seeing anything, Jerrod pinned the locations by ear and slowly edged over in his crouch to put the tree between himself and the people he heard walking.

When the steps passed his position, Jerrod moved further right to get a look at them from behind. Sure as shit, Jerrod saw that the small band of people were giants. Ranging from over eleven feet tall to as high as fifteen, the tallest being rather lanky by giant standards, they all wore clothes improvised from larger sheets of cloth, like bedspreads and curtains. All of them clearly alive, they nonetheless carried the waif of death around them like a shroud.

All more or less unwashed, Jerrod couldn't see anything else on them to indicate why they smelled of death. He waited for them to disappear out of his view before he trotted lightly back to the team.

"Did you see them?" Jerrod asked the other three Guardsmen.

"No, but that stank grew closer," Tanner answered, "Who'd you see?"

"Giants, four of them," Jerrod revealed, and shook his head. "Not sure what's up about them, though."

"So we're waiting for support now, right?" Leonard emphasized.

"I wanna see where they were coming from," Jerrod countermanded.

"Cap said...," David was about to reiterate Leonard's point.

"Wild Strikers take the initiative," Jerrod reminded Gonzales' unique draft of standing orders. "The more we know, the more support knows when they get here. Hoo'ah?"

"I'm with Jerrod on this," Tanner added, "I say we do it."

"Fuck, but okay," Leonard accepted, hanging his head briefly.

Jerrod led the way back and pointed around, "Follow my other steps here and you should avoid making any noise. Also, turn your radios off except you, Leonard. Turn yours down, though."

When they reached where his first trail stopped, Jerrod gestured for the others to stop, and then studied the ground ahead. "Yeah, got their prints there."

"Do you think they planted mines out here?" David wondered.

It hadn't occurred to Jerrod, but the realization sent a shiver up his spine in the second before better sense kicked in. "Where are they going to get mines? No, but look where you step anyway. There could be other kinds of traps we need to watch for."

The trees thinned out, leading to more ground cover plant life for the four to tread through single file. Jerrod then found the trail the four giants used, and started backtracking it. Further along they walked, the stronger the death scent grew.

Many supernaturals had started abandoning towns and cities in favor of a more rustic existence in preserves and state or national parks. Given the chaos growing in the cities especially, it was assumed they were looking for refuge until it all blew over. If it ever did.

Closing in on another cove of trees, Jerrod saw signs of it being made into a camp. He was sure the smell of the dead was coming from there. He expected to find a grave marker or something, when he stepped in onto the scene.

"Oh shit," Leonard breathed in shock. "You're fuckin' kidding me!"

"It's like a Grimm goddamn fairy-tale," Tanner added, unable to tear his eyes from the scene.

Amid the mundane collection of camping gear and improvised lean-to's, Jerrod's eyes locked onto the large plywood boards propped up around the circumference of the camp. On them was tacked up strips of meat and hides, which he recognized as being human. Along with the smell, he was certain these giants weren't just processing game animals for beef jerky.

They were cannibals.

"Sure, let's check it out," Leonard mocked, "What's the worst that can happen?"

Jerrod gave him a disapproving look, but inside he couldn't fault Leonard for not wanting them to come here. Tanner had the sense of mind to get his cell phone out and snap images of the grizzly scene.

"The hell," David exclaimed with disbelief, "Something to remember this place by?"

"Gonna need proof for our After Action Report," Tanner said, "Command's gonna grill us if we light up a bunch of giants without a good reason why."

Jerrod noted some of the giant's personal effects; photos of when they were much smaller and with friends or families, a Rubix Cube that was five-by-five-by-five instead of threes, a pile of novels in a gallon size Zip-lock bag, and canvas with painting supplies. It was that humanizing side that creeped Jerrod out the most. He wondered of himself how he'd have turned out but for being in the Guard when spontaneously turning into a werewolf.

"God, guys," Tanner complained while taking more photos. "Stomp around more, will 'ya."

Leonard and David traded confused faces, as they were just standing still, as was Jerrod.

"Fuck," Jerrod just popped out of it, and realized the giants were coming back. "Move it."

Waving the team through the camp and out the other side, Jerrod nervously looked backward while ushering the others out. Several meters away, Leonard found a ditch and signaled for the rest to duck into it. Jerrod was the last one in, and stared through a small shrub to see the giants leisurely strolling back into their camp.

"How much more Lord of the Rings does this need to get?" Tanner whispered, his eyes affixed between leafy coverage at the camp.

One of the giants paced over to a plywood sheet to inspect their morbid handiwork. "Give it another couple days and it'll be just right."

"How do you know this is safe for us?" another giant inquired, while thumbing through a magazine labeled JAMA.

"I was a physician before," the one looking over the meat replied, "Remember? I know how to cut around the central nervous system without contamination. Also, in my studies I found that the tissue of giants acts somewhat similar to tumors, but without the runaway dedifferentiation or cancerous effects. A CDC report showed that giants don't accumulate prions in the body or brain."

"Fuck me," Leonard mouthed silently toward Jerrod.

Jerrod just offered a grave expression and waving him down, before returning his attention to the giants' camp. Then, he waved Tanner over and pulled him in with a hand to Tanner's kevlar and whispered, "Need you to send Cap a text about this. Give him our grid numbers too."

"I'm not sure how far off from those we are," Tanner hissed back.

Jerrod stared through the bush, but scrawled out ten digits into the dirt with his finger. From the corner of his eye, Jerrod saw Tanner give him an incredulous look, but made no argument while tapping on his phone screen.

"Since when did you get deodorant?" a third giant asked of the fourth.

"I didn't," he replied, "But I'm smelling it too."

Jerrod took a whiff and then threw a scolding look to David. He just shrugged back, and Jerrod stabbed a couple fingers at him and them tapped his own arm pit.

David sniffed at himself and then showed three fingers, a hand sign for days, and a gesture over his shoulder. He'd implied he hadn't put any on for three days. Yet, it was enough not only for Jerrod to pick it but the giants also.

With noses as disproportionately big on their faces, Jerrod had wondered if that came with a better sense of smell, and to some degree the answer was yes.

Tanner showed Jerrod his text for approval, whereon Jerrod noted the warning Tanner included for the need of radio silence. Jerrod nodded and gave Tanner a thumbs up, before Tanner sent the text.

However, when Jerrod turned his attention back to the giants' camp he noticed that only two were visible. "Shit."

"Where're the others?" Leonard whispered.

Worried about that himself, Jerrod rose up slightly to look around. Then, he saw the physician giant pounding toward them faster than a man could sprint.

"Fuckin' light his ass up," Jerrod roared while unclipping his rifle muzzle.

The four of them started popping off rounds in panic, but the giant lunched at them with the most unseamly open-jawed grin on his face. "Got'cha!"

Jerrod pulled at Tanner and yelled, "Move it! Go, go, go!"

He and Tanner turned and bolted side-by-side, and Jerrod was sure he heard other hurried footfalls of normal weight behind him. Except, when Jerrod faced the giant ready to open fire again, he saw that David was in the giants hands.

The two halves of David, at least.

Emptying his entire clip, Jerrod watched small spots of blood appear on the giant, as he threw a protective arm over his face. Then, Jerrod noticed Leonard adjust his aim and fire many times more. Leonard's shot grouping was tight, and he centered his aim just below the giant's armpit.

Tanner just laid on three-round bursts with abandon while yelling, "Who's top dog, mother fucker! Huh? Who's the big dog now!"

The giant wavered on his feet and then fell over, which gave the remaining three Guardsmen a chance to run for it. While beating his feet, Jerrod traded out clips and put the empty one into the magazine pouch on his webgear. Through all that, he could hear the monstrously heavier foot-pounding strides of the remaining giants.

Jerrod veered off the well-trod trail and waved for Tanner and Leonard to follow. Branches whipped across his face, but Jerrod high-stepped it through the denser growth to avoid giving the giants an audible trail to zero in on. Hearing their steps grow distant, Jerrod then hunkered down with Tanner and Leonard following suit.

Then a plan came to Jerrod's mind. "You guys hold up here. Tanner, your firing sector is that way for cover and suppression," he waved with a forearm gesture, "And Leonard, you set up to shoot right down between those trees there. I'll line the fucker up for 'ya."

"What're you doin' in this?" Tanner demand to know.

"We can't outrun them like we are," Jerrod explained, "Gotta change it up. Like you said, we're the top dogs."

To illustrate his point, after unloading his rifle and webgear, Jerrod pulled down on zippers located on the heels of his boots. It let him take the boots off without untying them, and he stripped his socks off after, and then reconfigured his kelvar helmet which wouldn't otherwise fit with what he was about to do.

"God, this always sucks," Jerrod griped, before making three quick deep breaths and then straining.

It started with a flush of heat throughout his body, and then Jerrod felt his bones grind and crack. Muscles stretched or contracted all over, and he felt his face pull forward. He shook off the feeling of his ears being pulled on as pinched between forefinger and thumb, while a slicing sensation started on the tip of each finger and toe, other than his big toes.

The first toes shrunk up and disappeared into the insides of his feet, while the others grew to make up the difference. Wolf pads ballooned out on his hands and front part of his feet, and then he felt his tail growing out.

Jerrod reached around to pull at a velcro line a couple inches long then parted overlapping layers of his underwear to guide his lengthening tail through. Elsewhere inside his clothes, Jerrod felt itchy as his fur grew out. His chest and waist proportions altered, causing his ADU top to become tight around the chest, but his pants to feel loose around the waist. Sinching up his belt was easy enough, despite claws having grown from his fingers.

"Okay," Jerrod said with a deeper raspier voice, "Stay sharff."

A canine jaw and lips couldn't make all the sounds of English, but Tanner and Leonard got the idea, and nestled into shooting position. Jerrod's lupine ears swiveled and his sniffed at the air, both senses greatly improved from before.

Jerrod knew the giants weren't close enough, so he ran out from cover on all fours, bounding hard and fast. He ran deliberately toward the sound of one giant rummaging through the undergrowth where the trio had passed through. However, Jerrod came at the huge man from behind.

Lunging high, Jerrod bit into the back of the giant's knee and shook his head violently with growls to tug and tear at the wound. The giant bellowed in pain, as Jerrod felt tendons pop like huge bands of rubber through the thick but shredded skin in his mouth. Jerrod let go immediately, and pounded away before the giant could swing down on where he formally stood.

Having legs short in proportion to his body, the giant wasn't as hobbled as a man would be with the same injury, as his hands reached just past his knees when standing upright. It helped the giant, who now had to tripod it after Jerrod. "Son of a bitch, I'll kill you slow for that!"

From his panting, Jerrod looked like he would've been pleased by the giant's enraged threat, but really Jerrod's heart felt like it would explode from his chest for all the terror racing through his veins. He ran off through a clearer part of the wood, so as to remain within the giant's line of sight.

The huge man followed after him, sounding as if nothing else mattered than ringing a howler's neck. Jerrod, made a bad effort at jumping behind a tree to hide. Once there, he hastily spit out what little blood was in his mouth, and even pawed at his tongue and licked his forearm to get the taste out.

It made Jerrod think of that vampire they found in the house where the rest of the family had been stacked away in a closet. Jerrod was grateful that werewolves didn't become the mindless mauling furry furies of the movies, craving human flesh. For that matter, why would these giants resort to that, Jerrod wondered.

Jerrod poked his wolfen head out to see the giant making his way close, and then Jerrod poured on the speed again. He led the massive man right into the pre-arranged kill box, and started howling when reaching the long clear stretch of woods he'd set Leonard to aim down.

Growing ever nearer, like an avalanche of flesh and muscle, the giant made his way by pounding knuckles into the ground and hopping forward with his one good leg. "You just fuckin' wait, you werewolf piece of shit! I got a dog stew recipe I'm gonna try out on your ass!"

Jerrod made a few more jumps, trying to stay just a little beyond a jumping arm's reach of the giant cannibal. Then came those characteristic pops of an M-4 Carbine that Jerrod came to both love and dread over the last year and a half.

This time, Leonard's shooting was even better. The giant's head didn't recoil, but a sudden explosion of skin and blood from the temple let Jerrod know Leonard had found a sweet spot. Not quite dead, the giant twitched and slapped at his head while falling into a massive quivering heap.

Jerrod threw head turns left and right, while listening for the remaining two giants, but he heard distant discharges from other small arms.

"Papa Fox Airborne's out there," Tanner called out, "We got our air cover on those big mother fuckers, Jerrod!"

Captain Gonzales had gotten their text and sent in the Powered Flight infantry of the 37th, who were all angels. The Heavy Assault teams of giants were on the way, but the two cannibal giants had surrendered before that.

Jerrod had shifted back and collected up his gear, before leading Tanner and Leonard back to where David's body was. Gonzales and other men were already on the scene, but Jerrod insisted on taking the duty of getting David out himself. Tanner and Leonard joined in without a word, as they carefully placed David in the body bag and carried him out to an old duce-and-a-half truck brought back into use in the Ohio National Guard.

His eyes and mind were locked onto the body bag, as the truck drove out of the wooded area and onto a highway. Gonzales had said Jerrod did right by looking into the camp, but that didn't change Jerrod's feeling responsible for David.


End file.
